Developer Chat

The purpose of this chat is to answer any questions that you may have regarding Gridiron Dynasty -- recruiting, game planning, upcoming features, etc.

Can you disclose any information on the recruiting cost update? What will the changes be? (jeffkahleb - Hall of Famer - 2:00 PM)

The new cost structure is based upon 4 distinct distance categories --- driving distance (under 180 miles; 3 hours from campus), driving distance with a hotel stay (181 - 360 miles; 6 hours from campus), regional flight with hotel and rental car (361 - 1400 miles), and national flight with hotel and rental car (more than 1400 miles). This causes price jumps when you break into a new category, but relatively slow cost growth within each category. I think this is a very realistic model. To help you quantify what this means, here's a breakdown comparing old costs to new costs for 2 ast scouts, 2 head scouts, 1 ast visit, 1 head visit, and 1 campus visit (distance/old/new): 100/2700/2568, 250/4220/3456, 500/8439/5660, 750/10125/5913, 1000/10125/6171, 1500/10125/8403, ...

Anything definitive on long-distance recruiting changes (i.e., when they will be instituted, distance thresholds, expenses, etc.)? (jjgasp - Hall of Famer - 2:01 PM)

The cost structure changes will be in place for the start of the recruiting period in Bryant, the first world to recruit under the recruit distribution changes put in place several weeks back.

The down/distance settings for defense were a nice addition, thank you, but are there any plans (and if so, could you specify) to further empower the defense to enable a lower rated team to have a shot in each and every game with good gameplanning? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 2:03 PM)

There are not any current plans, however, if you have ideas surrounding this I'd be happy to hear them -- you can send them in through the support system.

My biggest gripe with GD is the way owners can grab squads that are esssentially "guaranteed winners" Other coaches have spent years toiling in the conference to build a 10-3 type team, but here comes either a cherry picker or a guy from a lower class and he is suddenly the coach of a team that finished 16-1 last year and has all of those built in advantages. Is there any thought about stopping that practice or at least lowering the HUGE advantage these cherry pickers get? (kannc6 - Hall of Famer - 2:06 PM)

The job application/consideration process is designed to make coaches take over the lower level schools when moving up. This is accomplished (or attempted) by bumping up the requirements for taking the jobs at good schools. However, you can only bump those requirements so far and a very good coach can still take over a very good school (it more difficult at the elite DIA level). I don't necessarily have a problem with this though because good schools attract good coaches in real life.

What is the possibility of WIS providing, or is it in the works to provide, a recruiting search engine that would search for combinations of stats that the coach would input...(example) Strength >40, Speed >60....? (oneomocron - Pro - 2:09 PM)

We currently have a lot of our resources tied up with a major HD release in the coming months -- likely late November to early December release -- including myself. After this release, those resources will by shifted to GD for a major release 2-3 months after. The exact contents of this release are not final, but the recruiting center search will be addressed as well as many other additions.

Where does the blocking back go in the depth chart? (jeffkahleb - Hall of Famer - 2:10 PM)

The blocking back or fullback goes in the last spot on the depth chart for the given formation. For example, in I-Formation this would be the 2nd RB spot on the depth chart.

In the Bryant World we have definitely seen a decrease in the number of quality of recruits, specifically at OL and RB. Was this a concentrated effort by WIS to shift the game from being so run heavy? If so, are there any plans to make more D-IA caliber QB's available? (randallball - Hall of Famer - 2:13 PM)

The quality of recruits was unchanged and actually the number of OL/DL (percentage of the recruiting pool) was increased. The distribution changes that were put in place starting with Bryant were for the number of recruits from each location in the country only. The talent is still randomly distributed across the recruiting pool. This means that a recruit from Anchorage, Alaska has just as good of a chance of being a 5-star recruit as a recruit from Austin, Texas or Miami, Florida, etc.

with the new long distance recruiting changes soon to come into play will there be changes to recruiting that does not involve pricing? if so, any advanced hints so we can prepare ahead of time? (plague - Hall of Famer - 2:16 PM)

In the next major release I spoke of earlier, I would like to incorporate a time constraint for recruiting...possibly in the form of a time pool that would work much like the budget. This would add another layer of strategy to recruiting.

what is the estimated time that the statistics record book will be implemented? also the new reward point system? any other changes on the horizon? (plague - Hall of Famer - 2:17 PM)

I believe our date is October 17th to release both.

When the new player stat tracking update comes out, will it begin tracking stats then, or has it been tracking already and will have some history already provided? (34jayhawk - Hall of Famer - 2:18 PM)

It has been tracking stats for several seasons at this point.

Is the rumor about the elimination of carryover true (swamphawk22 - Hall of Famer - 2:19 PM)

I don't think we will eliminate the carryover, but chances are very good that we will be limiting it in the near future.

Have you done a recent review of your home field advantage logic? It seems that winning any road game against a good coach is almost impossible. I agree there should be some level of advantage for the home team, but the 60%/40% number seems high, from what I've seen. (carpediem33 - Hall of Famer - 2:22 PM)

No, we have not....perhaps it is time to take another look.

In general game plan, would it be possible to add an option for a 2 minute offense when in the lead? I.E., a single check box you can select that says "Adjust the game plan tendencies to _____ and styles to _____when up by ___ or more with less than ___ minutes remaining." This would give the option of going 100% run late in games. (treyomo - Hall of Famer - 2:24 PM)

I won't rule it out, but the problem with adding more and more explicit situational controls is that it makes the game even more time consuming and sometimes confusing. Football has so many unique situations that once you start going down this path it is hard to say where you should stop. Sorry, I know this answer sucks, but I couldn't be more on the fence with this issue.

Have you looked into why kickers miss so many extra points and are there any plans of correcting this? This seems to be a point of contention with most coaches. (buffalo_rob - Hall of Famer - 2:26 PM)

I think the success rate of kickers is actually very close to reality when you look at the numbers.

In 12 seasons at DIA, I've gone 15-0 five times without playing for the NC. I'm not pushing for the playoffs, but I'd like to have some control over this. (When) Are we going to get user-selected OOC games, or at least the 5-8 split? (rlahann - Hall of Famer - 2:30 PM)

Again, this is something that I want to incorporate into the next major release. As a side note, I would love to implement a playoff system for DIA and wish there was one in real life. But I feel like taking that step removes too much of the "simulation of real life college football" aspect and also eliminates a lot of the "every game means something" mentality that makes college football great.

What is the rationale for having a coaches reputation take a hit every time a SIM AI recruited player is cut? It seems to handcuff those that want to turn a program around quickly and move on in a couple years. (nwurth - Hall of Famer - 2:32 PM)

If a coach comes into a new program and immediately cuts several players, his reputation amongst his players is absolutely damaged and recruits will also consider these actions when deciding to attend.

Thanks for taking the time to post your questions, comments and suggestions.